While the six soldiers of the Cameroonian army killed in an ambush of poachers in the Bouba Ndjidda National Park in the northern Cameroonian region were deplored, the latest report mentions two new civilian deaths.

These two victims were guides who accompanied the defense forces in the park during the operation. “They have more control over the park than the military, they have also been taken aback and lost their lives in the same way as our men in uniform,” a local Xinhua source said.

According to various concurring sources, the soldiers and their civilian guides were killed when foreign poachers who had scoured the park at night to kill elephants and other protected species were pursued by the Cameroon Defense Forces.

“After ambushing the soldiers on duty in the park and killing six of them, they wanted to take away the corpses of the killed soldiers, and there was a pursuit race against them. Bodies were abandoned before the attackers melted into nature,” a source told Xinhua.

One soldier was injured in the same operation. According to military sources close to the case, the heavily armed poachers are of Sudanese nationality. Ammunition, AK47 chargers, cell phones, bloody turbans, a wounded horse, and a Sudanese ID were abandoned by the attackers and recovered by the Cameroonian soldiers following a riposte.

Raking operations both on land and air are still underway to find fleeing poachers.

The 220,000-hectare Bouba Ndjidda National Park, the largest in the country, is vulnerable to widespread attacks by poachers, most of them from Sudan. It benefits from a policy of securing and protecting wildlife species.